Newspapers' struggle for survival in authoritarian regimes - The examples of Madrid (Spain) and La Opinion (Argentina)

Authoritarian regimes usually allow the press to act occasionally with a ce rtain degree of freedom. Within this restrictive environment, critical news papers may use different tactics to survive and, at the same time, to head for democracy. This was the case of two newspapers, Madrid in Spain and La Opinion in Argentina, whose battle against dictatorship eventually ended wi th their closing in 1971 and 1977, respectively. The two newspapers were sy mbols of resistance against the authoritarian regimes in their countries an d became ideological, political and cultural reference points for democrati c changes. In political terms, Madrid and La Opinion adopted similar strate gies of opening and resistance despite their specific national contexts. In terms of journalistic profession, the two newspapers took the prestigious Parisian daily Le Monde as a model, which was a rather common tendency amon g newspapers in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Yet both of them were parti cularly vulnerable as commercial companies: various administrative and lega l measures taken against them because of some supposed legal offences led e ventually to the closure of the two publishing companies.